But Cinnabon received enough blowback from the tweet that the retailer apologized.

“We are truly sorry,” the makers of mall cinnamon rolls tweeted. Cinnabon insisted that the tweet was meant as a tribute to Fisher, 60, who passed away on the morning of December 27 from cardiac arrest. Fisher had been hospitalized since suffering a massive heart attack on a flight from London to Los Angeles; the beloved actress, known for her iconic role as Princess Leia, never regained consciousness, said TMZ. An eyewitness had tweeted that Fisher was unconscious for 10 minutes on the flight after suffering the first heart attack.

Our deleted tweet was genuinely meant as a tribute, but we shouldn't have posted it. We are truly sorry.

Tweeting a joke about a beloved star’s death – no matter how well meaning – was risking controversy, especially when it comes to Fisher, who has legions of fans from her Princess Leia days. And they are not hesitant to speak up in her defense.

There was a famous late-1970’s parody of Star Wars called “Hardware Wars” (you can probably find it on YouTube; I saw it on 16mm film and have a DVD of it), “You’ll Laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll kiss 3 bucks goodbye!” where the actress playing princess Leia actually used large cinnamon rolls for her hairstyle (Cinnabon was not founded until a decade later). It was extremely funny when the big hairy monster (The “Wookie Monster” played by Cookie Monster) started trying to ear her hairpiece. I think the quote was innocent, it was not about any body part other than her hair …